Taunting the Congress, BJP on Thursday said it had avoided naming Rahul Gandhi as its Prime Ministerial candidate as it was aware of an impending defeat in the Lok Sabha polls.

BJP said naming of Rahul Gandhi as the Congress’ Prime Ministerial nominee would have led to comparisons with Narendra Modi against whom the Congress Vice President “stands no chance”.

Party president Rajnath Singh said the Congress decision indicated that they accepted that Modi is going to be the Prime Minister.

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said the decision of the Congress demonstrated that it had recognised the reality.

“I think it is a recognition of reality since they know they are not going to form the government. Then why the need for announcing a PM candidate. I think, any party which takes a decision of this kind weighs the realities,” he said.

He said Congress intent would also have been to “duck” a comparison with Modi for the country’s top post.

BJP’s Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Congress knew that it would lose badly and it would not want a head of the Gandhi family to be its Prime Ministerial candidate in such a situation.

“They know that the Congress is in for a major defeat. That is why the Congress, which is definitely going to lose, did not want to make the head of the Gandhi family as its Prime Ministerial candidate,” he said.

“They have not presented him as the Prime Ministerial candidate, because if they had done so there would have been comparisons, analysis vis a vis Narendra Modi and all surveys show that Rahul Gandhi stands nowhere in that. That is why they have not named him as the Prime Ministerial candidate but the campaign chief,” Prasad said.